Ariana Osgood
Ariana Osgood is a central character in the Private series, as well as the lead character of the first prequel, Last Christmas, and the spin-off, Privilege. Info Ariana is the quietest member of the group, possessing light blue eyes, ethereal white-blond hair, and a penetrating stare. She is known for always having her nose in a book, and is considered to be Reed's first friend in Billings, as it was Ariana who introduced Reed to the others. Reed observes that Ariana is often the most motherly and caring of the group, and most likely to comfort others in distress. Ariana's tactfulness can be compared to Noelle's blunt nature, as Ariana often reprimands Noelle and Kiran when they are being insensitive. Ariana, like Noelle, is a senior; as such it is clear that she and Noelle share a stronger — and possibly longer — friendship with each other than they do with Kiran and Taylor, who are both juniors. Beneath her exterior, Ariana is eventually revealed to have darker issues as the series progresses. ''Private'' The truth surrounding the school murder mystery arrives in the fourth book, Confessions. On the way back to Easton from a party, Reed and the Billings girls pause to take pictures; when Reed is asked to take a snap of the others, she happens to find a picture of a man's naked torso in Kiran's camera, and immediately recognizes Thomas's body. Frightened and suspicious, Reed demands an explanation and threatens to have the girls arrested. Noelle manages to calm her down and explains that the day after Thomas treated Reed abusively at a party, the Billings girls tied up and blindfolded Thomas while he was in a hangover; using Josh Hollis's car, they took him to a field near Easton and tied him to a tree, naked. There they changed their voices and taunted him, then went back to Easton when he passed out. Reed, horrified, then accuses the girls of killing Thomas by leaving him in the cold, while Noelle insists that they loosened the ropes binding him to the tree before leaving, so that he could free himself when he woke up. Noelle assures Reed that they never killed Thomas, and had only treated him so because of the way he acted towards her at the party ("We did it for you, Reed."). Fearful of being blamed for Thomas's death, the girls beg Reed to believe them and to not call the police. Reed agrees at first, but inwardly promises herself to never speak to them again. During and before Noelle's explanation, Ariana appears uncharacteristically angry, and directs her anger toward Reed. Unlike Noelle and Kiran, Ariana is unwilling to tell Reed the truth and she initially urges Noelle not to tell Reed anything. Later on Reed, who has had enough, finally decides to call the police and have the girls arrested. She discovers that her cell phone is missing and borrows her roommate's phone, realizing that she'll get reception only on the roof. Ariana manages to corner Reed on the roof of Billings; there she admits to murdering Thomas, whom she had been involved with prior to Reed's arrival at Easton, and accuses Reed of stealing him from her. She claims that at the start of the year, Thomas had promised to reveal their secret relationship to everyone at the school, but had broken up with her upon meeting Reed. This drove Ariana mad with jealousy, though she claims to have loved Thomas and regretted killing him when she should have killed Reed in the first place. This explains how Reed managed to get into Billings and befriend Ariana and the others. Ariana tells Reed that on the night she and the other girls tied Thomas up in the field, Ariana felt bad about leaving him out in the cold and later went back to free him. Upon reaching the field, a drunk, enraged Thomas started yelling insults at her and abusively calling her names. Ariana claims that she couldn't take it and did the first thing she could think of to make him stop: using Josh Hollis's baseball bat, she bashed Thomas on the head until he was dead. Then she arranged evidence to frame Josh, so that Josh would be arrested for killing Thomas instead of her. On the rooftop, Ariana uses a cell phone to call the police and frantically claims that her friend Reed has just thrown herself off the roof. She then brings out a knife and uses it to try to push Reed off the roof, before Noelle appears from behind and knocks Ariana down with a lacrosse stick. She lividly confronts Ariana and says that she had suspected her of murdering Thomas all along; and she had seen Ariana steal Reed's cell phone knowing that Reed would have to use Natasha's phone on the roof, where she would be most vulnerable. The police arrive within minutes, and a sobbing Ariana is arrested. ''Last Christmas'' Ariana appears in the prequel novel Last Christmas, which is set shortly before the events of the Private series. The story expands on Ariana's past experiences with other characters introduced in Private, offering further insight into her history. ''Privilege'' The spin-off series Privilege follows Ariana's life after her final appearance in Private. Upon escaping from a mental institution, the Brenda T. Trumbull Correctional Facility for Women, Ariana eventually acquires the identity and resources of wealthy teenager Briana Leigh Covington by simply using her acting skills and dying her hair auburn/getting green contacts. She goes to Atherton-Pryce Hall, a prestigious school near her old school, Easton, starting as a junior. Throughout the series, even though she has the gorgeous student body president Palmer Liriano as a boyfriend, and Lexa Greene, Soomie Ahn, Maria Stanzini, and even heir to the throne Princess Brigit Rhygsted of Norway as fellow queen bee best friends, she finds herself continually troubled by Kaitlynn Nottingham. Now known as Lillian Oswald, a name specifically chosen to annoy Ariana (her mother's name was Lillian Osgood), Kaitlynn is a former inmate at the institution, the person who orchestrated all of Ariana's actions to break out of the mental institution, and the one person who knows Ariana's true identity. Ariana even thinks that Kaitlynn is "the girl she hated most in the world." After Brigit's death at Kaitlynn's hand, which was a simple attempt to ensure her position in Stone and Grave, a school secret society and a huge deal even in international circles, Ariana hates Kaitlynn even more, but pretends to be friends with her. Her opportunity comes when she finds Kaitlynn trying to kill Lexa because Lexa, president of Stone and Grave, was hiring a private investigator to look into "Lillian Oswald's" history because she wanted to ensure that "Lillian" was trustworthy. She kills Kaitlynn on the pretense of wanting to save Lexa. She also kills Kiran Hayes on the same night, when Kiran finds her, exceedingly drunk and immediately recognizing her old friend. Following Kaitlynn's downfall, Ariana finally finds success and true love at her new school. Her love with Jasper Montgomery was constructed sneaking behind Palmer's back. However, Lexa starts going crazy, screaming when she sees anything that looks like blood and cracking under the guilt (Ariana convinced her to hide the fact Kaitlynn was dead). Lexa finally loses it completely when she thought Jasper knew about Kaitlynn's death, and she throws herself out a greenhouse window at a party. Although not dead, she is unconscious, and while that happens, Ariana breaks up with Palmer when he practically accused her of not stopping Lexa when the students were waiting at the hospital. When Lexa wakes, she asks for Ariana. When she told Ariana that she was finally going to reveal that Kaitlynn was dead, Ariana killed her as another one of her attempts to keep from being revealed. However, she spots Reed Brennan in person when at the hospital to show her support for Lexa, and starts freaking out. She starts planning to kill Reed while still at Atherton-Pryce as the now president of Stone and Grave and having fun times with her archenemy turned close friend Tahira, daughter of the emir of Dubai, Maria, and Soomie when she returns from her spa in Antigua. Meanwhile, Victor Meloni, hated 'guidance counselor' from the Brenda T. Trumbull Correctional Facility for Women, arrives at the school, hired to be a grief counselor after Lexa's death. On December 12th, the night of 'her' birthday party, she first goes after Victor Meloni, and killing him, she attempts to finally accomplish her goal of killing Reed Brennan, which leads to Ariana's undoing (death) which is the conclusion of the series. Alternate ending In certain fan-created projects, rather than losing her intelligence and making sudden missteps, Ariana takes different actions. In the Web-exclusive release Ariana's Happy Ending, Ariana is seen sending Reed to the bottom of a lake. Reed's status afterward is left ambiguous. Having escaped the cruel authorities at her old asylum, she then moves to an overseas mansion with her boyfriend, who is seen massaging her feet as they live happily. It is unknown if Reed or anyone else ever tracks her down. Category:Other Characters